Organiser of Snowdrop Day Ben Potterton, with some of his snowdrops at the Blacksmiths Cottage Nursery, Langmere. Picture: Denise Bradley

An annual display of snowdrops heralded the first sign of a new season this weekend.

Specialist growers and gardeners from across the region attended the event at Blacksmiths Cottage Nursery, near Diss, on Saturday.

And scores of people turned out to view their wares which ranged from the cheaper variety, to some on sale for hundreds of pounds.

Owner of the nursery, Ben Potterton, said the event, which is in its fourth or fifth year, had been a huge success.

“At the moment there’s a current craze for snowdrops and people want to go when something’s free,” he said.

“This morning we had the best lecturers in the country talking about snowdrops and it’s on their doorstep. It’s a nice day out.”

Michael Broadhurst, who grows snowdrops in his Redisham garden with his wife Anne, and displayed a variety at the event, said: “Most of the big snowdrop events tend to happen in the west so it’s nice to have something this local.
“We’ve had a lot of interest and a very good day - we only grow a certain number of plants each year because they’re difficult and the rarer ones can be quite slow to produce.”

One of the leading growers and sellers in the country, Joe Sharman, from Cottenham in Cambridge, said new varieties of snowdrop were continuously being produced - a process called hybridising.

New forms of snowdrop could sell for up to £300.

“I think snowdrops are appealing because they’re the first to come up in the spring,” he said. “They’re really positive and I think that’s why people get interested in them - why people get obsessed with them is a different thing.”